Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the House's consideration.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment to restore brownfields funding to fiscal year 2015 levels and to make the point that when we help redevelop contaminated properties, we generate a large return on investments that lift our communities back home.

My amendment increases EPA's Environmental Programs and Management account by a modest $1.9 million to be offset by the same amount from the Office of the Secretary. Even with this modest boost, the proposed bill on the floor, unfortunately, would remain $4 million below the budget request.

Mr. Chairman, when a contaminated property achieves a brownfields designation and a grant, local communities and businesses can clean up the property and put the property back into use. This type of economic redevelopment is key to our neighborhoods and communities, rural or urban. It increases property values and creates jobs with just a little bit of seed money from the EPA through brownfields.

A 2014 study concluded that cleaning up brownfields leads to nearby residential property value increases of 4.9 to 11 percent. Another 2007 study found that an average of 10 jobs are created for every acre of brownfields redevelopment. And based on historical data, we know that $1 of the EPA's brownfields funding leverages between $17 and $18 in other public and private financing.

Mr. Chairman, I have witnessed great success in brownfields redevelopment back home in the Tampa Bay area. For example, when the existence of the Old Mercy Hospital in Midtown St. Petersburg was in jeopardy due to environmental contamination on the site, the city of St. Petersburg and the EPA stepped in to turn the Old Mercy Hospital into a flourishing community health center. The project created 80 jobs, saved existing jobs, created new jobs, and it stands now as the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Community Health Center, which is the linchpin to Midtown St. Petersburg community redevelopment efforts.

Similarly, in Tampa, the Tampa Family Health Centers have redeveloped a number of brownfields sites, including one on the site of a closed car dealership, that have had a very positive impact beyond the health care of thousands and thousands of my neighbors in a severely underserved area. It is one of the primary examples of the growing healthfields initiative which targets redevelopment through brownfields to help improve access to health services for our neighbors.

Mr. Chairman, the return on investment is so great across America. The Congress must invest much more in our communities, and brownfields redevelopment is simply smart policy, especially in places where these resources are scarce. It is also a critical part of EPA's environmental justice efforts and its Environmental Justice 2020 Action Agenda framework. When the EPA released its Environmental Justice 2020 framework, I convened local community leaders across the Tampa Bay area to solicit their opinions, and brownfields redevelopment was at the top of their list.

Mr. Chairman, we can do better here, and I hope as the appropriations process goes on we will find ways to help communities redevelop with this small seed money through the brownfields initiative.

I would like to thank Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum. I urge my colleagues to support the Castor amendment to revitalize our communities back home, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Chairman, this is an important account to beef up. Remember, we are under the sequester caps, and then we are $4 million under the budget request even with this amendment.

Now, the Secretary's Office is the best place to go for an offset. The Secretary's account is $452 million above fiscal year 2015 levels and $389 million above the budget request.

I would put to you that it would be a better investment for our communities back home to allow them this little seed money, this little matching money, to redevelop properties, rather than fund the bureaucracy at the EPA.

I urge approval of the Castor amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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